"ISLAMABAD:
Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) Buland Akhtar Rana on Thursday (January 3)
told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that he had ordered to conduct an
inquiry regarding an audit report which mentioned that Minister for Railways
had been using 51 official vehicles.
“I
saw a report on electronic media the other day which made a reference to an
audit report that 51 vehicles were being used by Minister for Railways Ghulam
Ahmed Bilour so he has asked his auditors to verify this report,” he told the PAC which met Thursday with its head Nadeem Afzal Gondal
in the chair.
The
issue cropped up during the meeting when the audit paras relating to
unauthorised use of vehicles by former federal minister for health Naseer Khan
and caretaker minister for health Ijaz Rahim was taken up.
The
AGP told the committee that he had directed the auditors to check how this
audit para was made. PAC chairman observed how the audit reports were leaked
before presentation before the PAC.
On
the issue of recoveries from former health ministers, PAC chairman directed the
cabinet division to contact them for their comments before proceeding to
further action. “We cannot condemn anyone unheard,” the PAC chairman remarked.
The
audit officials told the PAC, according to the National Institute of Health
(NIH) letter dated Jan 16, 2010, Toyota Land Cruiser remained in the use of
former federal health minister from June 2007 to May 2008 and also remained in
use of caretaker federal health minister from Nov 15, 2007 to May 12, 2008.
According
to audit report, an amount of Rs.188, 395 is recoverable from both the former
federal ministers that includes an amount of Rs.56, 536 from former health
minister Naseer Khan and Rs.131, 859 from former caretaker health minister Ijaz
Rahim.
The
auditors also recommended that disciplinary action should be taken against the
officers who provided the vehicles to the former health ministers. Meanwhile,
the PAC that took the audit paras relating to Ministry of Housing and Works for
the fiscal year 2006-07 expressed its dissatisfaction over the attitude of the
top officials of the ministry as they did not comply with its previous
directives.
Even
Chairman PAC Nadeem Afzal seemed perturbed over the non-compliance of the
previous orders of the committee by the officials of the Ministry of Housing
and Works and said if he had executive powers, he could seek the resignations
from all the top officials of the ministry. “It’s time that the live coverage
of the PAC should be allowed so that people themselves may judge the performance
of the bureaucrats,”he added.
He
also directed the PAC secretariat to write to the National Assembly Secretariat
for the permission of the live coverage of the PAC proceedings. “Throughout the
world there is practice that PAC proceedings get live coverage,” he remarked.
Nadeem
Afzal also directed the PAC to prepare a list of those Principal Accounting
Officers who failed to comply with the directives of the PAC for the audit
paras from the year 2001 to 2006 so that it could be made part of the committee
report that would be presented to the National Assembly."
Link
to the news: http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-2-152406-Railways-minister-using-51-official-vehicles
[The
News, January 4, 2012]
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